Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Thursday.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on LFUS. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Littelfuse has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of Littelfuse stock opened at $200.97 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $228.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.51. Littelfuse has a 12 month low of $199.70 and a 12 month high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.66, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 2.62.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.22%.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LFUS. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Littelfuse in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 525.0% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 125 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 181.0% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 548.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 188 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Littelfuse Company Profile

Littelfuse, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors.